Health felt exempt from making cuts, says Howlin

The Department of Health failed in recent years to "fully understand that everybody had to be part of the crisis", according to the Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin.

Admitting difficulties he had in negotiating the health budget with the former minister, James Reilly, in recent years, he said the department had failed to grasp that there was “no ring-fenced complete exemption” to cuts in the past number of budgets.

Mr Howlin said the funding allocation for health has been unchanged in the years from 2011 to 2014, but that increased demands and pressure on health services meant that failure to get their extra funding requirements was presented as cuts.